The Rider

The Rider
by Tim Krabbe

The Rider
List Price: $12.99
Category: Book
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Book Summary Information

Author: Tim Krabbe
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2003-06-12
ISBN: 1582342903
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Product features:

Book Reviews of The Rider

Book Review: Best Bike Racing Book?
Summary: 3 Stars

The Rider probably is the best-written novel on bike racing, edging out Ralph Hurne's The Yellow Jersey, but that could be damning with faint praise. If you're a fan of bike racing you should enjoy this book, but as a fan of books, I was often frustrated by the fact this this was so close to being utterly brilliant, but somehow fell short. I'm going to assume it is because the work was translated, but perhaps not. Perhaps it is brilliant, and I need to read it again. As it stands I enjoyed this book, and often found myself smiling (Krabbe clearly knows amateur bike racing and isn't faking knowledge the way so many thriller writers do when they botch scenes involving ordnance, for example) but for me the experience never produced the aesthetic moment wherein the story elevated itself to art. Krabbe's style is typically stark, and effective. It would be easy to parody. If you have seen the original version of The Vanishing and the U.S. version than you know how Krabbe's work was somehow dumbed-down for Hollywood. I have a suspicion that is what happened with the translated version of this novel. A good book, but certainly not a great book. For overall cycling enjoyment I'd recommend James Starrs anthology on cycling The Noiseless Tenor. Still, this is vastly superior to anything anyone in the U.S. has produced on bike racing.

Summary of The Rider

A literary sports classic, finally available in the U.S.

Originally published in Holland in 1978, The Rider became an instant cult classic, selling over 100,000 copies. Brilliantly conceived and written at a break-neck pace, it is a loving, imaginative, and, above all, passionate tribute to the art of bicycle road racing.

Not a dry history of the sport, The Rider is beloved as a bicycle odyssey, a literary masterpiece that describes in painstaking detail one 150-kilometer race in a mere 150 pages. The Rider is the ultimate book for bike lovers as well as the arm-chair sports enthusiast.

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